Sunday, October 7, 2012

Sloppy joes

We're back online! We've been super lazy about posting recipes. Not that we haven't been cooking... Just not posting... So here we are with a sloppy joes recipe. We decided to try gardein, which is essentially fancy textured vegetable protein. I've heard great things about it and found it on sale at fresh and easy!

I got a packet in "ground beef" form and Sarah decided sloppy joes should be the first recipe. Warning as we begin: careful with the cayenne! We put one full teaspoon of red pepper in and paid the price for it later. Also when we added the soy sauce the cayenne evaporated with it caused coughing fits for both of us… so, moral is, be careful.

Vegan Sloppy Joes
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 or 1 medium zucchini, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/3 c gardein meatless ground
1/2 tsp cayenne or less (remember be careful!)
Oil to sauté the onion
1/2 c ketchup
Nutritional yeast as desired

Sauté onion until translucent, add zucchini and garlic for an extra minute or two. Add cayenne and stir until well covered. Stir in gardein, soy sauce and ketchup. Simmer for several minutes and add yeast as desired. You may need to add some water if it gets too dry while simmering.

Other than the extreme spiciness of our dish it was rely delicious. We served it with a half cup of brown rice pasta. Yum!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Too many dates

So as I moved to Cali, I found out that Hannah has been shopping at Cosco for some of her food. Its a great place to shop, don't get me wrong, but one of the downsize of shopping at Cosco is that sometimes you just get ways too much food. Sometimes this is a good thing, like when it comes to artichoke hearts, a food I could eat until I got sick, but then there are dates. She got a giant tub of them. She wanted to make vegan date ice cream and tried at first but then gave up... and then was stuck with the giant tub of dates.

Enter me into the picture. About two weeks ago I moved out here and was staying with Hannah until I found my own place. And like any good temporary housewife, I made lots of good foods. I like to try and use what is already in the house and what I had was dates. Now in my experience dates are really good for baked goods. Unfortunetly both Hannah and I are watching our figures and are not so interested in baked goods at this time. So I had to get a little more creative when I came to using the thousands of dates in Hannah's fridge. So I spent a good amount of time on the internet and epicurious looking for some other good delicious way to use dates. And low and behold my great googleing skills paid off. according to google there are many salads and sweet things to make with dates and then there is Date and Chickpea Tagine. Never heard of it. Neither had I until just a week ago.

The funny thing about my google results from this recipe is that many of the hits were also from other blogs. there was one legit recipe from Vegetarian Times and the rest were recipes slightly altered from that first one on a bunch of other food blogs. Blogs are such a funny thing. But anyways this recipe as follows is my give on this already passed around recipe.


Date and Chickpea Tagine

1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Chopped Onion
4 Cloves of chopped Garlic
1 tps Cumin
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 15 oz can of Diced Tomatoes
1 15 oz can of Chickpeas
1 c Pitted and diced Dates
1/4 c Lemon Juice
1/2 c Coos Coos
1/2 c Water or vegetable broth

Add oil to a saucepan over medium heat. cook onions until caramelized, about 10 min. add garlic, cumin, cinnamon, tomatoes and chickpeas. Simmer for ten minutes. If more liquid is needed add 1/4 c water.
While that is simmering boil 1/2 c of water. When water has come to a boil add coos coos, stir and take off heat.
Once chickpea mixture has simmer for 10 min add dates and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste (we did not add anything else)
Serve Tagine over coos coos and enjoy!

This meal is very sweet, but somehow all the other flavors seem to still be able to pop out and be tasted. its funny, you can totally taste every single ingredient in it.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Vegan Quiche

So I just moved to California and am bumming at Hannah's place until I find a place of my own and a job. For this reason there might be a bunch of recipes up over the next couple of weeks while I look for a job. I would also like to apologize for the lack of pictures over the next couple of posts. While I was in Nicaragua I lost my camera. I have been taking pictures but they are using Hannah's I-pod and i can't get them onto my computer thanks to not having the software downloaded on my comp. But pictures will be posted in a little bit.

The other day Hannah and I had some quests over to hang out and eat some good foods. The week earlier when I was visiting at my parents house my family had made normal quiche and since coming to Cali I had brought the idea up a few times to Hannah that we should try a vegan quiche. She was skeptical but willing to try it out.
Super excited about the idea I instantly started searching the web for vegan quiche ideas. Luckily there are about a million vegan quiche recipes out there and I was able to pick a nugget or two from a couple different ones. Although I got to say that the whole foods recipe looked the best in its complete form than any of the other ones. http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2114

Vegan Quiche

1 vegan pie crust (I used Hannah's secret family recipe, sorry can't share)
1 package of firm tofu (squeezed to get all the liquid out)
1 medium onion chopped
2 cups of spinach (or more, the more veggie the merrier)
1 medium broccoli chopped
4-8 quartered artichoke hearts (dried of with a paper towel)
1 sliced pepper (red, green, or yellow, your choice)
1-2 shopped cloves of garlic
1/3 cups almond milk
2 Tbs tahini
2 tsp curry powder
2 Tbs olive oil
cayenne pepper to taste

Pre-heat oven 375
In a blender combine the tofu, almond milk, tahini, curry, cayenne until a paste. if too thick add more almond milk, or if you want a different flavor add some soy sauce.
In a frying pan saute the onions until translucent. add rest of veggies and cover until spinach is wilted.
In a medium bowl combine tofu mixture and vegetables
In a pie pan lay out pie crust. poke holes in the bottom with fork.
add mixture to pie pan
bake for 18-20 min
Once hard looking and a little brownish take out and enjoy with a little bit of ketchup.



We served this to our friends coming over, a risky business with new recipes, but the whole thing worked out great and our guests ate nearly the entire pie! Proof that is was delicious!
And not only is it delicious but it is crazy healthy. If you know anything about the weight watchers point system, something Hannah and I are a little addicted to, than you might be interested to know that this entire pie is only 18 points!  Just another excuse to eat the whole thing and not feel bad about it. :)

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Quick and easy: "Greek" sandwich

Sarah is back from Nicaragua! Luckily the typical stomach issues that she fell victim to down there were not lasting as mine were. Our vegan cooking has returned in full force and several recipes will follow but for now a quick and easy.

Sarah is obsessed with artichoke hearts. You know, the oily, marinated kind. It is unusual and a little disconcerting as she sometimes makes herself sick from eating too many. I finally tried one the other day and actually found it surprisingly enjoyable. My approval of them resulted in them being included in every meal for a week. The tastiest result was what I am calling a "Greek" sandwich (thou I doubt the Greeks would actually claim it. hence the quotes).

"Greek" sandwich:
Cut pita in half. Line the inside with hummus. Put a bit of romaine lettuce inside. Add 2 or 3 artichoke hearts in that sucker and enjoy!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Chard's Second Chance

After my last disappointing recipe using chard (see posting "green eggs and ham"), I was wary of buying more chard. However, I was at the local farmers market on Saturday morning when I saw some beautiful organic rainbow chard. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to allow chard to redeem itself.

I had lots of leftover green things that I needed to use up as well so I threw together this extremely healthy and exceptionally tasty dish:

Greeny Delight
1 zucchini, cut to 1/4 inch slices
1/2 lb brussels sprouts (abt 2 -3 cups), ends trimmed and quartered
1 stalk celery, cut into 1/4 inch slices
3 cups rainbow chard
2 Tbsp soy sauce
water

Cook brussels sprouts in a thin layer of water on medium heat until slightly tender (about 5 minutes). Add the remaining vegetables and soy sauce. A small amount of water may be needed, but do not flood it. Cover and let cook until the chard has wilted (about an additional 10 minutes).

This meal was surprisingly delicious and unbelievably simple. I ate it with a small amount of rice. Chard has made a come-back!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My New Friend

I invited my first California friend over for dinner and took the opportunity to make a new recipe! (I have found its easier to make two servings than one when following a recipe)

One of the benefits of being a minister is that certain congregations have amazingly generous spirits and help furnish your apartment to make you feel more at home. One wonderful woman in my congregation gave me her copy of the Moosewood cookbook, which has turned out to be a great resource. Many of the recipes are vegan and others are easily alterable.

So, from that cookbook I pulled a recipe for Brazilian Black Bean Soup. I completed the menu with a personal favorite (and staple of my diet), Root Vegetable Chips.

Brazilian Black Bean Soup
(This is the recipe as printed in Moosewood. I halved the recipe and made some slight alterations. My alterations other than halving are in parentheses.)



2 cups dry black beans, soaked (I used one can for the half recipe, rinsed)
6 cups water (with the can, this was unnecessary. I added a bit of water but not much)
1 Tbs olive oil
10 medium cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups chopped onion
2 tsp cumin
2 to 2.5 tsp salt
(because of the canned beans, I did not add any salt)
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium bell pepper, diced
1.5 cups orange juice (
living in citrus country, I just juiced 2 oranges for the half recipe)
black pepper, to taste
cayenne, to taste
(I added spicy salsa as a topping, so I left the cayenne out)
2 medium tomatoes, diced (the recipe indicates this is optional but I thought it really added something. I would recommend the tomato)

Optional toppings: sour cream, cilantro, and salsa
(I only used salsa)

1) Place the soaked beans in a kettle or Dutch oven with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until tender. About 1.25 hours. (skip this step if using canned beans, obv)

2) Heat olive oil in a medium-sized skillet (I just put this in a large pot and then added all ingredients on top). Add onion, half the garlic, cumin, salt, and carrot. Saute over medium heat until the carrot is just tender. Add remaining garlic and the bell pepper. Saute until everything is very tender, about an additional 10-15 minutes. Add the sauteed mixture to the beans, scraping every last morsel. (or add the beans to everything else, as the case may be)

3) Stir in orange juice, black pepper, cayenne, and optional (not really optional) tomatoes. Puree all or some of the soup in a blender or food processor (I did half and it was a good choice), and return to kettle (pot). Simmer over very low heat 10 to 15 minutes more. Serve topped with an artful arrangement of sour cream, cilantro, and salsa.

Serves 6-8 (or 2-3 if halved. I don't know how that works but that's what happened)

Root Vegetable Chips
Any root vegetable will work here, but basically a sweet potato or yam is a must. As you will see below, this recipe is extremely precise (sarcasm).



Root vegetables (including but not limited to sweet potatoes, beets, potatoes, yams, taro, etc.)
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste AND/OR cayenne pepper and cumin for an extra zing


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut vegetables into thin chips as pictured above or into strips (like fries) pictured here:



Toss vegetables in a bowl with olive oil until all chips are thinly covered. Put chips onto a pan and shake spices on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes on each side (20-30 minutes total).


This final image is the foil that I put on the pan for roasting the root vegetables. It turned out beautiful thanks to the beets!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Green Eggs and Ham

Sometimes experiments don't work out the way you've planned.  I found a recipe for "White Beans and Greens with Eggs" in a magazine from a local health food store.  I've recently introduced kale into my diet and have been inspired to try more greens.  I deleted the eggs from this recipe and ended up with a somewhat bland but assuredly healthy meal.  I'm including the recipe in case anyone else can think of a way to make it better. I just added left over tomato sauce and it became satisfactory.

White Beans and Greens
1 can cannellini  beans
1 bunch chard (washed, stemmed, and chopped)
1/2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T water
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 T olive oil

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and saute for about 1 minute.  Add the remaining ingredients and cover until greens are wilted (about 7 minutes).

Thursday, February 9, 2012

New Beginnings and Pitzza

So, Sarah has gone off to Nicaragua for a couple of months, and I have decided to take this blog into my own hands. Incidentally, I have also moved across the country for a new job. Thus, with no friends, I have a lot of time to try new recipes. 

My first adventure is a simple one: Pita Pizza (or Pitzza for the clever ones out there).

This dish is great for veggie lovers.  I will list the veggies I used (mostly just what was in my fridge), but feel free to load it up with whatever catches your attention.  This recipe is super flexible.  You can even add soy cheese if that suits your fancy! (or real cheese for you non-vegans).



Pitzza (serves 2)
2 whole wheat pitas
Your favorite tomato sauce
1 small zucchini
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 onion
1 Tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven (I used a toaster oven) to 400. Cut onion in half and then into into 4ths or 8ths depending on size.  Cut the remaining vegetables into slices or chunks no larger than 1/2 inch.  Toss all cut items in a large bowl with olive oil.  Bake for 10-20 minutes.  The zucchini will take much less time than the sweet potato and onion.  They do not really burn easily, but they do dry out. 

Once the sweet potato is soft and the onions have a slightly sweet smell (you should be able to eat one easily without cringing from terrible taste) put your pitas on a pan and cover with tomato sauce.  Put the vegetables on top and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 375. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes and Fried Bananas

Yet another back dated blog post. I really need to get more up to date on my and Hannah's food creations! This creation is accredited to Hannah. For quite some time this last fall i was feeling the need to eat something with pumpkin. Because as we all know, eating pumpkin is the only way we realize it is really fall. But being a regular lazy person, instead of getting a real pumpkin i opted out for the canned version. I was planning on being really creative and making Hannah something delicious for when she was to come over during the weekend, but weekend after weekend i would continue to be uninspired and so not make anything. One weekend I mentioned to Hannah that I had some pumpkin that needed to be used. I had to work an overnight shift that night and so I suggested to Hannah that she should make me something with it for when i got home in the morning. She took me up on the challenge and when i got home in the morning I had pumpkin pancakes waiting for me.

Pumpkin Pancakes
2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 1/2 Cups Water
1/2 Cups Almond Milk
1 - 1 1/2 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Pumpkin (canned)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

In a bowl combine almond milk and apple cider vinegar, let sit for 5 minutes. this makes a buttermilk like substance. combine the rest of the ingredients together until no longer lumpy. Let rise for 5 minutes then stir again and let rise for 5 minutes one more time. Makes 20, 4 in pancakes.

Drawn and slightly altered from http://vegenista.com/post/1277880293/vegan-pumpkin-spice-pancakes

Hannah went the extra mile by adding this delicious topping.  She found a banana and fried it up with some maple syrup.  Perfect addition!

Fried Bananas
(Serves Two)
1 banana sliced
1 Tsp Earth Balance Buttery Spread
Maple Syrup

Melt butter in frying pan on stove top. Fry bananas on both sides, make sure not to fry to long otherwise they will become mushy. Add a healthy amount of maple syrup and heat until warm.

We love our Apples

At some point this last fall I was cleaning out my pantry and trying to use some ingredients I had had in my cupboard for some time. The ingredients I had left over were oats and almonds. I was having Hannah, her brother, and brother's girlfriend over and was told that i should make something yummy and Hannah friendly. What i came up with, after searching the internet for some time looking for inspiration was a apple, almond, and oatmeal cookies.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup vegan butter (you can also use 1/4 c butter with 1/4 c applesauce to make it a little more health conscious)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 egg equivalent (Ener-g is ideal, but flax works well too.  It just tastes more... earthy)
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup diced apple
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar. Beat in the "eggs" until well blended. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture until well blended. Fold in the walnuts, oats and apples. Drop dough by spoonfuls about 2 inches onto ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Let cool on wire racks.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Blueberry Crumble!



This post is a little late in coming. Only a couple of months... Who's really keeping track. The hold up can be blamed on not writing down the recipe I created while making the crumble. But after no further ado, my post!
While Hannah and I were on vacation this last July I made it a point that we went blueberry picking. As a kid my family and our friends would often go to this island in the middle of lake Pawtuckaway in NH. We called this island blueberry island. I kid you not, we could spend an hour on this island and we would have over two pounds of blueberries. The bushes are covered in blueberries and it must be a well kept secret because every time we went out there it always had blueberries.
I also have fond memories of my family on my grandfather's boat. I loved zooming around on the boat spending lazy afternoons with my family devouring my grandmother's blueberry cake. Now this cake was in no way vegan. It had mountains of butter and eggs, the trick to any good British snack. I loved this recipe soo much that I just had to share it with Hannah after we got back from out trip to blueberry island with out two pints of wild blueberries. Unfortunately I could not find my grandmother's recipe and had to improvise, but my improvisation turned into a crumble. Not quite my grandmother's cake, but good enough to make you want to come back for more.

Blueberry Crumble!


4 Cups of washed blueberries
1 Tbs Lemon juice
3/4 Cup Brown sugar
1/2 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
5 Tbs Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Spread
3/4 Cup Rolled Oats

Set oven to 375 degrees. In a greased 1 1/2 quart dish spread blueberries. Sprinkle lemon juice over blueberries in dish.
In a separate bowl combing the rest of the ingredients until crumbly. Evenly spread over blueberries in dish. Place dish in oven and bake for 30 minutes until crumble is golden brown and blueberries are bubbling.

Serve with your favorite vegan vanilla ice cream or just eat as is!